Wales Council of the Blind

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Sensory health statistics for Wales published

The Welsh Government has published sensory health statistics, covering eye care and hearing services, for April 2017 to March 2019. The report summarises statistics relating to primary care eye services and targeted Welsh eye care services such as Eye Health Examination Wales and Diabetic Eye Screening Wales, the Hospital Eye Service, sight impairment registration, certification and the Low Vision Service Wales.

The figures show that, at 31 March 2018, over 15,000 people in Wales were registered with a visual impairment, of whom around half were registered as severely sight impaired and half as sight impaired. 1,455 people were newly certified as sight impaired in 2017-18 with over 52% of these aged 80 years or over. 68.7 % of new registrations aged 65 or over were diagnosed with age related macular degeneration as the cause of sight impairment, an increase from 66.1 per cent the previous year.

For more information, and to read the full report, visit the Welsh Government website.